


Maybe The Real Ravus Was The Culmination of The Loved Ones He Lost Along The Way

by Lyrecho



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Character Analysis, Fan theory, Gen, Meta, This Will Make You Sad About Ravus, headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9919448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrecho/pseuds/Lyrecho
Summary: Or, an analysis of Ravus Nox Fleuret and how he became the person he is by XV game canon; from his real parentage to the truth about the chip on his shoulder to how love and death slowly came to mean the exact same thing to him and how that shaped his personality.Be warned - copious amounts of headcanon abound. Pretty much everything within is pulled together by the glue of a theory. A cool theory, but a theory nonetheless.(crossposted from my tumblr for longevity; the hellsite has a habit of swallowing the words hidden under a 'read more' whole, after all)|Tumblr||Twitter|





	

First of all, we need to establish a baseline - who, exactly, is Ravus Nox Fleuret?

In some ways, the question is an easy one. He's Luna's brother. He's a recurring antagonist throughout the game. He's a man with _fabulous_ hair. But all these observations are only skin deep - and while the very few glimpses we actually _get_ of Ravus throughout the XV universe seem to imply he _is_ a shallow person...that's less 'he's a bad character' and more 'square enix is bad at balancing character development and importance with screentime,' re: Luna, for example.

To know who Ravus is, we need to know who he _was_ \- and fr that, we have two places to turn to; Kingsglaive's opening scene, and Tenebrae.

•

**01| TENEBRAE:**

Tenebrae, we know, was based on France - architecturally, at least. The culture itself is...something else entirely, from what can be gleaned.

My first statement: Tenebrae is a matriarchy. Sylva was a queen that ruled alone, it's the home place of the Blood of the Oracle, Gentians is implied to be fairly we respected for a handmaiden, and the worker and child encountered in our brief stopover at Tenebrae as it burns in game are both female. Not exactly concrete evidence, but given the fact that the worker and child both feel bold enough to just walk up to the Crown Prince of Insomnia and start talking, you can gather that even if they're just commoners, they're used to a fairly elevated status - at least over people like Noctis and his companions, who are all _men_.

Most people would point to _Lestallum_ as being Eos' foray into matriarchy, especially given Iris' now infamous (and never really expanded upon) line of **only the women work here.**

The things about societies and communities is that they don't work unless the people in charge _know what they are doing_. And Lestallum isn't a kingdom with a long and rich history. For all its size, it isn't even really a city - it's a town. Town's don't just up and decide to become matriarchies, meaning it has been that way since it was settled - and those first settlers had to come from _somewhere_ , lending more credence to the theory that Tenebrae is a matriarchal society and always has been.

So if that's been established and we're all on the same page - the question is, _what does this mean for Ravus?_

**02| SYLVA NOX FLEURET:**

Well. If you want to know the son, look to the mother.

I don't think it's a stretch to presume that Sylva rules alone. She is never shown with any husband - and sure, he could have just died after Luna's birth, but I rather think that in a matriarchal society such as Tenebrae's, she wouldn't need to be married to be crowned - and more than that, given her duties as both oracle and queen, it would have been preffered by all if she did not also have marital duties distracting her. Likely, her children were born of dalliances with consorts.

Here, I would like to introduce an idea I will go into more depth on later: Luna and Ravus are not full blooded siblings. They share a mother, but have _different_ fathers.

That, however, is not important right now. No, what's important is that Sylva's firstborn - her automatic (and at the time, only) heir is _male_

*dramatic organ key smash*

In matriarchal societies, men aren't usually disrespected, or even necessarily seen as 'lesser' - but they don't rule. They aren't in charge, not like women are.

So Ravus grew up knowing that he was just a placeholder until a daughter came along - and she would _have_ to come along, because more than just a queen, Sylva was an _oracle_ , and she needed to have a daughter to take her place.

(NOTE: all that is required for one to be an oracle is 'to be female and of the blood of the Oracle; even is Sylva had never had Luna, the oracle line would have been continued on in Ravus and his children; the first girl born from his branch would have become the oracle instead.)

So Sylva spends all her time trying to birth a daughter and when Luna finally comes - given that even as a child she knows quite clearly about her duties as an Oracle and is very well spoken - she focuses almost all her attention on her heir; the daughter she wanted in the first place.

But wait, you say. Wouldn't Ravus be the heir? Well, it's never mentioned either way in any XV canon, but no. I sincerely doubt it, especially considering the fact that literally _no one_ (with the stark exception of Luna) cares about Ravus. Firstborn or not, he's the spare...or, rather, he _was_.

**03| THE CRYSTAL CHOOSES NOCTIS:**

So, the Crystal chooses Noctis - the event that the blood of the oracle has been waiting for for literal generations, and Sylva knows her little girl is the one who is going to guide the chosen King of Light - meaning she won't have time to actually run her kingdom on top of oracle duties - so Ravus, the spare, is brought up to bat. For eons, oracle and queen have been one and the same...but for the sake of the holy crystal, even traditions must be broken.

**04| THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER:**

I just want to make one thing abundantly clear before I go on: _Ravus does not believe his mother loves him_. He knows she didn't want him, and in the mind of a child - or even a teenager - 'want' and 'love' aren't really all that seperate.

In fact, the first time Ravus realises his mother loves him is when she dies for him - the moment when 'love' and 'death' become intrinsically twined in his head.

**05| RAVUS NOX FLEURET IS LITERALLY THE LEAST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD:**

Having captured Tenebrae successfully, even if the Lucians got away, Niflheim is left with one problem, and one loose end: Ravus, the 'spare.'

And never before has that title carried so much wait - because while Luna is young and pills can control her ability to further her bloodline, it would be easy for Ravus to impregnate multiple women at once - thus creating family lines from the blood of the Oracle not under the empire's thumb; the best move, really, to ensure that the oracle Lunafreya remains meek and obedient only to them is to remove any hope she might have that Tenebrae will be free one day and kill the spare.

Which means Ravus has to prove he is more than just his blood; his mother's unwanted son (he understands, now, though, that even if she didn't want him she _loved_ him) and so he joins up with the Niflheim army even if he _hates_ it, because Luna stayed behind for him, consigning herself to a different, slower death than their mother - and all for his sake, because she loves him. At this point in time, is literally the only person alive who does.

The least he can do is find someway to keep her safe to return the favour - like climbing through the ranks to get the power he needs to protect his most precious person.

**06| IT'S JUST A REAL SHAME LUNA LOVES OTHER PEOPLE, TOO:**

Death (or a willingness to commit to that endless sleep) = love, as far as Ravus is concerned. So when Luna let's it drop that she's going to die for Noctis, Ravus is two things: 1) horrified that he's going to lose the only person who loves him and he loves back and 2) determined not to let his sister kill herself over someone who doesn't love her back - after all, he didn't even _consider_ fighting for Luna all those years ago, let alone sacrificing himself for her, both him and his father just ran for their own lives like the cowards they were.

(Logically, this train of argument doesn't make much sense. But Ravus, you see, is far from logical.)

**07| RAVUS PUTS ON THE RING OF THE LUCII (AND...DOESN'T DIE???):**

The biggest thing about Ravus' character is that a lot of the personality traits we see in him from game to movie _fluctuate_ , and just don't add up to any real motive when taken all together. He is a _very_ static character. The biggest thing most people trip over in the 'what, exactly, were square going for here?' department when it comes to Ravus is the fact that he put the ring on in the first place - _why_?

After thinking on it for literally two months, my answer is this: he was desperately hoping for either 1) a reprieve for Luna, in which she would either not have to die or the crystal would choose someone different for her to die for (like, say, him), 2) the power he would need to shoulder the burden of Luna's fate for her or 3) to find a weakness he could destroy the lucii/crystal with so there would be no reason for Luna to sacrifice herself at all.

TL;DR: Ravus' motivations for everything in Kingsglaive (and the game) are simple - he just wants Luna alive.

And...like that seems really obvious, I know, but its more than that - he doesn't care about the world, or about Insomnia and Niflheim or even about Tenebrae - just Luna, only Luna.

...Yeah. Ravus is messed up, guys - but then again, it makes sense a bit, don't you think?

After all, single minded focus and a sort of... _insanity_ do actually seem to be common in men with Caelum blood in their veins.

**08| WAIT, WHAT:**

You want to know something I noticed while playing the game that nagged at me for _ages?_

Ravus and TYL!Noctis look really, really similar. And...who is it that TYL!Noct is explicitly said to take after, again?

Well, I don't know about you, but all I can say I congratulations, Regis, because you ARE the father!

No, don't leave just yet - hear me out, okay? I have EVIDENCE.

More than just the fact that Tenebrae and Lucis are said to be very close, more than just the fact that Sylva and Regis specifically look very close - even more than just the physical similarities shared by Ravus and Regis in both game and movie models, is the fact that Ravus puts on the Ring of the Lucii, and he _doesn't die_. Of anyone and everyone shown to put that ring on - if they didn't have Caelum blood, they were SOL, even Nyx, whom Regis vouched for.

You could say that it was because he was the blood of the oracle and the crispy arm was just the luciis way of giving a sharp warning to the descendant of their long time allies - but doesn't the fact that he lived through it make more sense if the lucii were in fact telling a young upstart of their own blood that he wasn't worthy? After all, anyone not worthy of the ring died in seconds - even Nyx, who had potential, was burning within minutes until he agreed to give his life as payment. You need to have Caelum blood to actually survive contact with the ring; something shown pretty consistently throughout the XV universe.

There's also the fact that Ravus carries The Sword of The Father...which gains a whole new meaning if you think about it from this angle.

**09| BROTHERHOOD:**

The biggest selling point of this for me, though, is the heavy emphasis the XV universe puts on brotherhood - especially the bonds between the four in the main party. Ravus is already a huge foil to Noctis - as his blood brother he would be a foil, an antithesis to the very _core_ of the worlds main values.

/This also means that Luna's story and ultimate fate is told between two brothers trying to save her by offering her two different options before she refuses to choose and takes the middle part of sacrifice - which is something straight out of a Greek tragedy, and we know how much influence this game pulled from the greco-roman pantheon.

Him having Caelum blood is a bit of a hint towards the ending, too - alongside Ardyn, he's one of the only recurring antagonists, you fight him once, in order to kill the plauge inside him - echoing just how the final fight will go down; a clash between two differing ideals held by men who shared the same blood.

**10| SO...WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN, EXACTLY?**

It means that Ravus deserved better, is what it means. Also, I may be just a little obsessed

If anyone has anything else to add, or this sparked some thoughts or inspiration inside of you - please, tell me! Tag me, message me, shoot me an ask or whatever, _I will talk Ravus with you with absolute relish_

Actually, if you stuck around this long, thank you! 


End file.
